Winding mechanism for timepieces



n June 2, 1 3 H. L. STRINGER 1,808,691

WINDING MECHANISM FOR TIMEPIECES Filed March 14, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig.1.

l/ l /l ///Y/Vl/1 YINVEIYVTDR A TORNE Y5 I June 2-; 1931' H. L. STRIN GER WINDING MECHANISM FOR TIMEPIECES 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 14,

Patented June 2, 1931 UNITED STATES PA F -{CB nUBEar LESLIE semen, or nocknieeannmt; NEAR EXETEB;

WINDING MECHANISM; m mamm- Application filed March 1;, 1929, Serial No. 347,024,"and in Great Britain March 22, 192 8.

i This invention relates to devices for winding the springs of spring-driven clockwork mechanisms which are subjected to vibration.

Examples of such clockwork occur in the weight mounted so as to oscillate in'response to the vibrations to which'theclockwork is subjected, and connected to the spring winding arbor or other member by which the spring may be wound up through a uni-- directional device which includes one or more cords or threads encircling a pulley and normally kept under tension by means of a spring. Conveniently a mechanism maybe employed such as set forth-and claimed in the specification of United States Patent No.

1,616,339, and convenientlymay be applied to'the typeof clockwork mechanism which is wound through a going-barrel, and consequently in which the winding arbor is only rotated in one direction during winding and at other times is prevented from rotation.

The oscillating weight is preferably mounted to execute its oscillations under the control of one or more springs, so that either the whole weight,'or at least some point on it,

moves in a direction substantially normal to the-axis of thespindle carrying the pulley, which is primarily driven throughthe cord or cords attached to the Weight. One end of a flexible cord, thread, or the like may be i then connected to the said point on the weight and may pass around the pulley, its other end being connected to a spring, which may be anchored to a fixed point on the casing orsupport of the clockwork, or may, in fact,

be anchored toanother point in the weight as long as it is mamtamed 1n tenslon when the weight is moving in one direction. The purpose of the spring is to maintain atension onone end of the cord'or thread when the weight moves in a given direction. As a matter of fact, a second cord or thread passmg around a second pulley,or another part of the same pulley, in the-same sense as the 5;

first cord may be employed, having one end attached to the Weight near the point at which the spring referred to above it attached," and having its other end connected to a spring venting'the clock from being overwound, and

according to a further feature of the invention, 1 a relieving mechanism is provided which maybe operatedwhen the spring of the clockwork is fully wound either to prevent the weight from vibrating, or toprevent the transmission of its vibrations to the winding mechanism. This may depend upon the epicyclic gear principle being arranged so that when the spring "of the clockwork cannot be wound further, one of the wheels of the reduction gearingis driven slightly as an epicyclic or planet wheeL'and results in a braking or locking device being applied tothe weight, or in relieving one or both of the threads or cords-so that the oscillationsof the gweight are not transmitted to, the winding mechanism.

In order that theinvention, may be clearly understood and readily carried into effect,

some forms oi winding gear in accordance with the invention will nowfhe described merely by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is an elevation of one form" of winding gear looking alongthe axis of the winding arbor of the clock;

Figure 2 is an elevation at right angles to Figure 1, partly in section; t

winds the spring of the p,

V to Figures 1 and 2 showing a modified ar- .bracket Z of the casing.- thus suspended on-twocoiled tension springs 1 the springs m.

Figure 3 is an elevation of a modification showing a method of preventing the clock from being overwound, and which may be applied to the construction illustrated in Figures 1 and 2;.and

Figures 4 and 5 are views corresponding direction for winding the main spring, and is then held stationary whilethe clock is going.

The arbor b is connected to an intermediate spindle 0 by intermediate spur gearing'consistlng of a pinion d and a spur Wheel al having a ratio. of 8:1,.and again, the

intermediate spindle c is connected to the driving spindle e by further spur gearing f, again with a ratio of 8: 1. The result is that the-ratio between the driving spindle e and the winding arborbis,64c:1.

The vibratory weight consists of a weight ,9 held between two side plates-h, the latter also having between them aspivot'tblock 3' bearing the pivot 70, which "can rock in a The weight g is m supported at their upper endson thefixed casing, and supporting at their lower ends ;pins m extending fromfthe'side plates h of the weight g. If such a clock is carried, for

example, on the dashboard ofa motorcar, the inequalities in the road surface will produce vibrations which when transmitted to the weight 9, will cause the latter to turn in a vertical plane aboutpthe pivot Z0, stretching There are'also. four pegs n, 'n fln 'and n extendmg across the space between theplates h approximately above and below a'pair of pulleys 0 0 fixed to the spindle e The pulley 0 isencircled by a cord or thread 19 and the pulley 0 is encircledby a'cord'or thread 10?. The arrangement isras follows The lower endof the ,cord p is attached directly to the peg n and then, as seenin Figure 1, passes clockwise around the pulley 0 and is fixed to the lower end of a tension spring. g the upper end of which is anchored to thepeg n Again, the cord or thread 1?? proceeding from the upper end, which is fixed to the peg n passes aroundthepulley-0 also ina clockwise direction as seen in Figure-1, and

is then'attached to theiupper end of a'coiled tension spring 9 the lowerend of which is The device as described so far operates in V the followin'gmanner :When a swing is set up in the weightg', it will be assumed that counter-clockwise spur wheel d the latter first moves downwards, extending the springs m. The tendency is to pull on the lower ends of the threads 17 p and to slacken the upper ends. Consequently the cord 79 will impart a driving impulse to the pulley 0 and tend to turn the spindle e anti-clockwise, as indicated by the arrow in Figure 1. The cord 39 during this movement will remain ineffective.- Then during the return upward movement of the weight g, the cord 29 will come into action and will also turnfthe spindle e in the direction of the arrowin Figure 1, the cord p in turn becoming inefl'ective. v

' Thus, the net result is that there is a driving impulse imparted to'the spindle e in the direction, no matter whether the weight g is moving up or down. The spindle 0 is therefore turned step-by-step in a clockwise direction, as shown by the arrow in Figure 1, and the spring arbor bis turned counterclockwise in order to wind the spring. By use of the gear ratio shown and a given weight, it is possible to wind a motor car clock fullyin a few miles, so that even if the earthen remains stationary, the clock will continue-to go.

So far no mechanism is described nor illustrated in Figures -1 and '2 for avoiding the winding action'when the spring becomes ful-" ,ly wound. Such ar'mechanism, however, is shown in detail in Figure 3, which shows the winding arbor b, the intermediate spindle 0, and the driving spindle e. The spindles'c and e are journalledin-a pairof plates 1";

They are arranged so that if they were not restrained, they could turn about the spindle b, and in fact the driving impulses applied to thespindle e would,'unless provision were made otherwise, cause the small pinion (Z to travel as viewed in Figure 3 in-a-clockwise direction: around the spur wheel d with which it engages, in an epicyclic movement.- I -In'normal operatlon, however, thisxls prevented by a tension spring 8 anchored between the tail r extending from one of the plates r and'the casing u (see Figure 3) The spring s is sufiiciently strong tovprevent the" abovedescribed movement of the pinion d and to ensure that instead of this movement, the

drive ofthe spindle 0 shall rotate the arbor b to wind the clock.

lVhen, however, the clock spring becomes fully wound, its resistance to rotation, of

course, increases very-considerably, with the result that the driving effort on the spindle a can no longer rotate the arbor b,but instead appreciably stretches, the spring 8, allowing the :pinion d.;to travel alittle around the when the plate a" is moved, its tail.- 1"? abuts against the head ofla sliding pin t so as to push the latter into engagement with a recess 6 1n the pivot block jlof the weight g.

vThe engagement of the pin 16 in the recess 1 The resultlof this is that obviously locks the weight 9 against vibration when the clock is fully wound. The parts are shown in Figure 3 in the normal position they take up allowing the clock spring to be wound. lVhen the clock spring is fully wound and the pin t engages in the recess t in order to prevent the weight g oscillating. the clock will begin to run down a little, with the result that the spring 8 can contract so as to pull the plate 1' back to the position shown in Figure 3. The pin t is withdrawn from the recess t by the spring a surrounding the pin 6 and placed between its head and the fixed bracket 6 The result is that the weight g is freed and the whole automatic winding mechanism is put into action again. During the normal operation, the tail r is latched by a ball catch r This ball catch 1 is provided with a spring (not shown) so that it holds the tail r firmly until the clock spring is fully wound when epicyclic movement of the plates 1" begins. Similarly it prevents the plate 1" from being rotated too far in the anti-clockwise direction as seen in Figure 8 under the action of the springs when the weight g has been unlocked. This is desirable in order to preventhunting or chattering of the locking mechanism.

In the modified form of construction shown in Figures 4 and 5, the general arrangement is just the same as in Figures 1 and 2, and wherever possible the same reference letters have been applied. The diflerence in detail, however, is that the double reduction gearing (Z, f is here replaced by worm gearing, which may, of course, have the same reduction ratio as in Figures 1 and 2. The arbor b carries a worm wheel '0, the worm w of which is fixed to the driving spindle e, which in this case is at right angles to the axis of the arbor b. The pulleys 0 and 0 although turning in a plane at right angles to that corresponding to Figures 1 and 2, are still driven in precisely the same way from the weight g.

' when it swings, but a particular point on the weight only moves towards and away from that axis.

Furthermore, different forms of mecha-- nism may be provided for preventing overwinding of the clock spring. For example, a clutch or other connection may be arranged between the weight and the winding arbor to be disengaged as by slipping when the spring is fully wound. Finally, it will be realized that the invention is not limited to clocks mounted upon motor cars, nor indeed to any clocks, and naturally when applied to I watches for personal wear, the whole mechanism will be similar to that'already described,

and a unidirectional device consisting-of a pulley in driving connection with the spring of the clockwork mechanism, a flexible member encircling said pulley and having both of its ends anchored so as to move with said weight, and a spring inserted in the length of said flexible member to apply tension thereto.

2. Means for winding a clockwork mecha nism comprising the combination of a welght mounted to osc llate in response to vlbratlon and a unldirectional device cons sting of a pulley in driving connection with the 1 spring of the clockwork mechanism, a pair of flexible members encircling said pulley in the same direction and both having their two ends connected to said weight, and springs each in:

serted in the length of one of said flexible members in order to maintain same in tension.

3. Means for winding a time-piece comprising arbor of saidtime-piece, a flexible mem ber encircling said pulley and having both ends anchored to said weight, and a spring inserted in the length of said flexible member to impart tension thereto..

1-. Me ans for winding a time-piece comprisoscillate in response to vibration, a plate mounted to swing about the axis of the Wind-.

ing arbor of the time-piece, a pulley in driv ing connection with said winding arbor and rotatably mounted in said plate, a flexible member encircling said pulley and having both its" ends anchored to said weight," a spring inserted in the length of said flexible member to apply tension thereto, a gear fixed to said winding arbor, intermediate i gears mounted in said plate to connect said firstnamed gear to said pulley, a spring attached to said plate to maintain the normal position of the latter during winding, and a member mountedto move with said weight against oscillation. I

In witness whereof I hereunto subscribe my name this 5th day of March'1929. HUBERT LESLIE STRINGER.

plate to'lock said ing the combination of a weight mounted to i 

